The First Russian Casualty: World’s Largest Aluminum Company, Rusal, Warns It May Default

While it is easy to blame western sanctions for the recent tribulations at the world’s largest aluminum company, Oleg Deripaska’s Rusal, the reality is that the industry specific issues plaguing aluminum makers, certainly including former Dow Jones Industrial Average member Alcoa, which involve a fair share of manipulation of physical inventories at assorted global warehouses are much more responsible than some theatrical rhetoric flaring up between the West and East in the past month. Regardless of the cause, as FT reports, Rusal just announced it is on the verge of insolvency after it warned of “material uncertainty” about its future, and that it has asked its creditors to delay repayment on a maturity from its $10 billion debt pile due next month.